I love you, I love you not.
21 February 2017 
Every Tuesday over at the The Broke and Bookish we all get to look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) examples to demonstrate that particular topic. This week’s topic is:
Ten Books I Loved More Than I Thought I Would (or books that you didn’t like as much as you Thought)
I really enjoyed all the books below – much more than I expected. Brief explanation of my original qualms against each book.
- Unwind, Neal Shusterman – I simply didn’t like the sound of this but then it just really grabbed me.
- Witch Light, Susan Fletcher – this started out slow and I thought I wasn’t going to enjoy the author’s style of writing. A few pages later I couldn’t get enough of it.
- The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman – foolishly, the cover for this always put me off – I don’t know why. Fortunately I got over myself – I love this book.
- The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt – who knew that I would love western style stories!
- Ready Player One by Ernest Cline – I figured this might be too sci fi for me but I absolutely loved it.
- All the Truth that’s in me by Julie Berry – I think this was simply a book that wouldn’t have been on my radar – a good friend recommended this and I loved it.
- The Girl with all the Gifts by M J Carey – another book that I’m glad I picked up. I think the hype surrounding this one put me off a little. In this case the hypes well deserved.
- The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore. The cover. Sorry, but it just didn’t do it for me. The book really did though!
- Flex by Ferrett Steinmetz – another book that I figured my go ‘whooshing’ over my head. As it happened this was fantastic.
- Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu – ditto the above. I can’t recommend this series enough.
Books and travelling with Lynn 
I typically don’t judge a book by its cover, but I do by the title. Also, if the author doesn’t grab me in the first 100 pages, I’m likely to put the book aside. It’s good that you gave all these books a chance as you ended up loving them.
I did – and I’m so happy because they were all good.
Lynn 😀
I’ve read quite a bit of Christopher Moore but not that one. I love Dirty Jobs and have meant to read the sequel but haven’t gotten to it yet. I’ve not seen that cover for Unwind before.
I will put Dirty Jobs on my list – I loved Serpent of Venice and definitely promised myself I’d read more of Moore!
Lynn 😀
I heartily endorse your recommendations of The Girl With All the Gifts and the Lives of Tao, both of which are quirky, memorable reads. Great list, Lynn. Flex and Witch Light both look great.
Witch Light is one of those books that I couldn’t stop raving about just after I’d read it! I really enjoyed it in spite of the start. Girl With All the Gifts was just such a surprise and the Tao books – well, I just love all of those books!
Lynn 😀
I have only read the first Tao book, but I have the next one in the series and MUST get around to it…
I enjoy the hell out of Christopher Moore though often his endings are less than stellar. Truly someone who makes me snort while reading. I am weird about Graveyard book. I liked it, but can’t figure out why it is so crazy beloved by everyone. It is the rare Gaimen book i never bothered to buy.
I love authors who make me snort when reading! I should read more by Moore for sure.
The Graveyard Book – not sure why I loved it so much. It was quirky. I liked the Jungle Book parallels and the writing just really appealed to me for some reason. It’s almost the simplicity of it – it does read a little bit like a children’s book – which funnily enough is the very thing that initially put me off – and then by strange irony the very thing that I enjoyed. Go figure.
Lynn 😀
I’m afraid I’ve never read any of these, however I’m pleased you enjoyed them more than you thought you would. I have heard good things about The Graveyard Book, but I am torn about reading it as I didn’t enjoy Stardust which is the only solo novel I have read by Neil Gaiman.
I think The Graveyard Book is my favourite Gaiman book and I think you probably would enjoy it – it has this jungle book vibe running through part of the story and it’s quite packed with quirky imagination.
Lynn 😀
You do make it sound good 😀
The Girl with All the Gifts is on my TBR. I can’t wait to get to it.
It was so good – I hope you love it and look forward to your review/thoughts.
Lynn 😀
I think I looked at the graveyard book and briefly thought the same, even though I have been a fan of Gaiman. But then I opened the page and I was already hooked on the first sentence!
Yeah, such a good book – not to mention first sentence (there was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife).
Lynn 😀
I’ve read that sentence to a few of the kids I taught in school and they get such goosebumps from that first sentence alone! Then, of course, they want to know more, hahaha.
Oooh, Unwind! Great pick there. I read that one before I started blogging and didn’t expect much from it, but WOW did it ever blow me away. Never did read the rest of the series though!
Yes, feeling a bit ashamed – I never read the rest of the series either. in fact, when I read Unwind I thought it was a standalone! I should go back and give the rest a go because I did love it.
Lynn 😀
I read your review of Neil Gaiman’s Graveyard Book and you can color me intrigued, since I don’t remember having seen it mentioned (although my memory is not that reliable…): it sounds like a delightfully weird book, and I will add it to my reading queue soon. Thank you! 🙂
I loved it. I resisted reading it for a long time because, although I love Gaiman, I can admit that I’m not a fan of all his work. Plus, the cover I was familiar with just made me thing it was aimed at children not adults. I’m so glad I read it. It’s very quirky, it has some fantastic imagination running through it and I love that he had this ‘Jungle book’ idea running through his brain when he wrote it.
Lynn 😀
I loved all the 80’s throwbacks in Ready Player One. It was such a good book.
Yeah, that was a really cool part of the story!
Lynn 😀
Felt the same way about Flex, Lives of Tao and The Girl with All the Gifts 🙂
I’ve never read Neal Shusterman or Christopher Moore – the books you named above by both authors are on my list though, I hope I’ll like them as much as you did!
I also enjoyed The Graveyard Book far more than I thought I would. Actually, it was my first ever Gaiman book! He definitely became an automatic favorite author and I’ve been working my way through all of his books.
Gaiman is just an author I love and won’t hesitate to pick up – I’ve not loved all his books funnily enough – but whilst that would usually make me feel a bit less love it hasn’t done with this particular author. Don’t know why. The books I do enjoy of his I really DO ENJOY. I just need to get over my qualms and read American Gods – have you read that one yet?
Which ones have you not cared for if you don’t mind me asking? I have not read American Gods yet… I think I am very intimidated by the fact that it is a mammoth of a book lol
I don’t mind. I didn’t really like Good Omens – which is the Gaiman/Pratchett combo. Loads of people love it and it is a good book but I wasn’t as keen on it in terms of both authors – I didn’t think there own style came across as well. I also read a book of short stories – and some of them were a bit too dark for me. I prefer his mythical/magical/whimsical feeling books – I know he does have a dark streak, and to be honest I like gritty books but sometimes – not so much!
Lynn 😀
I haven’t read Good Omens or any of his short stories YET, but I get what you are saying 🙂
You may love them of course – they’re certainly popular. I think I like the more whimsical stories somehow.
Lynn 😀